Page 105 of The World Undone

He’d cut me off. I had no idea how, but I couldn’t reach him.

A loud crash sounded on the other side of the wall and screams pierced through the hall.

We needed to get out of here. Now.

Jumping over a particularly gnarly wall of flames, I reached him.

When I grabbed his face between my hands, his eyes finally met mine. But they were cold and hard, the usual warmth nowhere to be seen.

But he didn’t hurt me. Didn’t attack.

That was something.

“It’s okay,” I whispered, temporarily lost in his dark stare. “It’s okay. Breathe. You’re safe. I’m safe. We need to leave this place.”

He didn’t respond, but he wasn’t pulling up fresh waves of fire either.

“Darius, come back to me.”

Something flickered in his stare, but I still couldn’t quite reach him.

“We need to get out of here.” Not bothering to explain my plan, I held onto him and teleported to the room where we’d left Haley.

Ro had her cradled in his arms, his eyes hard when they met mine.

Without a word, I grabbed his arm and shifted us outside.

Protectors swarmed the grounds. The wing we’d been in was completely swallowed by a fire that only seemed to be gaining momentum. The top floors had collapsed, leaving nothing but rubble.

I took in the sight for one breath before I shifted us again, pausing no more than a second between each jump until my feet finally planted on the familiar rocky shore of the lake.

Ro dropped Haley and fell to his knees as he spilled the contents of his stomach on the ground.

Even I felt a little queasy, my strength completely drained. I’d never pushed the limit quite that far before without breaking for at least a few minutes between the longer jumps.

Haley was still out from the poison, but her fingers twitched like she was slowly regaining feeling and control.

“You’re back!” A voice called behind us.

I spun around, still struggling to catch my breath, for my brain and body to catch up to what had just happened.

Charlie came running, a warm smile tugging her lips, though it slowly melted, her expression etching with lines of concern as her eyes shifted beyond me.

Darius.

When I turned to find him, he’d moved at lightning speed.

He pinned Charlie to a thick tree and sank his teeth deep into the side of her neck. No preamble, no warning.

Her scream reverberated through the woods, slicing through me like a blade.

“No.” My stomach dropped.

No.

No, no, no.

I ran to them and used all of my remaining strength to pull him off of her, trying like hell not to let his teeth tear her up too badly in the process.

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